Day 43 Conical Hill

 After a lovely lie in I woke up to find Mrs Jackson, a lovely lady who lives just across the street from the hostel had baked scones with homemade jam and whipped cream for everyone at the hostel! So after a lovely breakfast of scones I set off on my walk up to conical hill.

(I found out later she made them once she heard an english person was staying at the hostel!)

The walk was, as the name suggests, all up hill, which was rubbish, but the view was stunning once you reached the top. Surrounded by mountain peaks the valley spread out from the hill, filled with farm land and forest.

I’d only planned to walk to the top, spend a little time dawdling and then head back down but it was so beautiful, and tranquil – which is surprising considering the amount of people I saw on the walk up, I took the book I’d gotten from the book exchange at the hostel and promptly spent a good portion of the day reading in picturesque settings.

When I got back to the hostel later I was surprised to find Cara and Axel checking in! Apparently they’re just spending one night at Hanmer Backpackers and then another at the Japanese bathhouse instead of the original two nights at the Bathhouse. After a quick catch up we made dinner, explored the town a little bit and collapsed into bed!

Day 24 Queenstown in the Rain

Today has been grizzly and grey, almost felt like being back home! We’re all holding our breaths that the weather picks up soon as the budget isn’t flexible enough to allow us to stay in such an expensive place for an extended period of time – Queenstown is beautiful and so much fun but it’s not cheap! In the mean time we’re doing the few bits and pieces that you can do in bad weather.

First up was to try a FergBurger. Kind of a cult restaurant for Queenstown, everyone who comes apparently needs to try one, and I have to say it was very good, but it was absolutely huge! Mine was literally the size of my head! And mine was just the standard size, Axel got the Big Al which was ridiculously sized, and is basically a heart attack in a bun!

I met up with some people from Saturday night and went to see Thor (there really isn’t a great deal to do other than shop and go to the cinema when it’s raining) I did venture up to the cemetery – sounds macabre I know but all the guide books kept saying how interesting and beautiful was, and the misty settings did give it a magical sort of atmosphere!

This is the hostel's dog and he's definitely the highlight of the place :) we're moving hostels tomorrow morning though as if we're staying a while we want somewhere cheaper - so cute!

On the plus side it’s not particularly cold here, even when it’s raining.